Lev jolted awake when he felt his sister’s hand on his shoulder, whipping around in a bleary daze. “Wha- what?!”
“You fell asleep,” Kestri said, sitting down in the other pilot’s seat.
Lev groaned and glanced at the star chart. “We’re still six hours from the station,” he mumbled. It’s no big deal.
“No big deal until you’re jerking the ship up to avoid crashing,” Kestri chuckled, wiping dust off one of the displays. “Hmm… coolant’s out of alignment.”
“That mean it’s leaking?” Lev asked, his attention turned to the scanners.
“Not yet, just not as efficient as it could be,” Kestri said, tapping at her pad. An unusual device, fashioned from a 21st Century communicator hardwired to a power cell. Kestri preferred it to the ship’s log terminals, much to her brother’s confusion. “There’s also more rust building up on the hull, and a Squiggler chewed through some of the wiring. We should get repairs done when we get to the station.”
“Are we at risk of blowing up before we get there?” Lev asked
“Not unless the Squiggler is operating with premeditated malicious intent,” Kestri said. “Which, I mean… you never know.”
Lev narrowed his eyes at Kestri. “Why must you put these images in my head knowing they’ll bug me until we land?”
Kestri turned to him and grinned. “I like watching you squirm. Makes me feel powerful.”
“You’re the one thing keeping this relic together. That doesn’t make you feel powerful enough?” Lev asked with a sigh.
“She can’t thank me. Or beg,” Kestri said, running her hand over the console. “Isn’t that right, babygirl?”
The gentle hum of the ship's slipspace drive was the closest thing Kestri received to an answer.
“Mmm. That’s right. Purr for me,” Kestri cooed.
“I will literally fly us into a star if you keep that up,” Lev said dryly.
“Well excuse me for having a little whimsy,” Kestri scoffed. “Don’t worry, babygirl. I’ll give you a nice acid wash once we land.”
The engine thrummed slightly, as though it somehow understood. Lev never understood how she was able to do that.
“...Where’s Julie?” he asked, looking over his shoulder to the open door of the cockpit. “It’s usually not this quiet.”
“She’s sleeping in our bed,” Kestri said. “Poor thing tuckered herself out last night watching me fix the reactor.”
“Really? Didn’t think she would find something like that interesting,” Levi asked, brow furrowed slightly.
“If Mama’s doing it, she thinks it’s interesting,” Kestri shrugged. “At least that’s what I assume. Kid’s still not talking.”
“Maybe she communicates through percussive notes,” Lev said. “That could explain why there’s so much stomping and banging when she’s awake.”
“Maybe, but I think-” Kestri was cut off by a soft pinging on the ship’s radar. “Oh… oooh, radar’s picking up all kinds of small particles.”
Lev’s hands tightened around the controls. “Distress signal? Hostiles?” he asked.
“A dust cloud,” Kestri said, flicking a switch on the console. The console hummed as the deep space scanner came online. “Let’s see… ooh, Palladium! Alter course, that’s too valuable to pass up. I could finally replace the coil in the reactor!”
“You sure?” Lev asked. “I’m worried the particles will be too fine for our collectors to scoop up.”
“Trust me. The cup runneth over with Palladium! Alter course!” Kestri repeated emphatically, swatting at Lev’s shoulder.
“Alright, Alright. If you insist,” Lev said, shifting the controls until the ship faced the dust cloud.
Kestri made an excited noise and got out of the chair. “Gonna go prep the drones! Finally, Debbie’s gonna get to use the big sack!”
“Debbie? I thought we lost Debbie in that asteroid belt,” Lev said, visibly perplexed.
“No, that was Darcy,” Kestri called back as she left the cockpit.
“How many drones do you have left?”
“Just the two!” Kestri called back. “I’ve got a new core half finished though!”
“Oh. What are you going to name that one when it’s finished?” Lev asked.
“Devin!”
“Ah. Naturally,” Lev shrugged, turning his attention back to the viewport.
The Big Sister dropped out of cruising speed at the dust cloud, and it was a thick one. The scanner showed that this close it was mostly palladium, copper and iron. All good metals to get.
Kestri sent the two drones out with filter bags to scoop up as much dust as possible. They would fly out, fill their filters with dust and come back so Kestri could dump it out into a siv, separating the metals as effectively as possible. The drones kept working for twelve hours, and by the time they had to be pulled in for maintenance, Kestri had collected several tubs of palladium, along with a few tubs each of iron and copper.
“Oooh, this is gonna smelt easy!” Kestri grinned as she hauled them into the cargo hold. “New wiring, fix the hull, fix the reactor, a good day for one tired old ship!”
Julie looked at the tubs, eyes wide with curiosity.
“See this stuff, Julie?” Kestra asked, shaking one of the tubs. “We’re gonna turn this dust into solid material that we can use to fix stuff around the ship.”
The little girl’s mouth fell open slightly, almost looking agape with wonder.
“This stuff here can be made into wires!” Kestri said, patting one of the copper tubs. “Now I can get the heater in your room running again. It won’t be so cold anymore!”
A smile broke out across Julie’s face, her hands patting her own cheeks in excitement.
“Yeah, you get it,” Kestri smiled, taking Julie’s hand and leading her out of the cargo hold. “Once we get to the station, we’re gonna be there a few days so I can fix everything on the ship. Don’t have a refinery here, so extraction stations let me use theirs in exchange for some of the metal.”
Julie cocked her head slightly, a question visible in her eyes.
“A station is like a ship only it’s really, really big and it doesn’t move,” Kestri explained. “We stop at a station every now and again to fix up the ship and trade materials. Stuff that’s harder to do on our own.”
Julie’s mouth fell open, and her eyes widened in curiosity.
“I can fix things, so I always have something to trade,” Kestri smiled as she led Julie to her room. “That’s how I have good potatoes for your favourite soup!”
Julie’s eyes sparkled as she bounced on the balls of her feet at the mention of soup.
“Yes, yes. Lev’s going to make your favorite soup,” Kestri giggled. “But we gotta get them at the station first.”
Julie grinned and she started jumping up and down.
“Yeah yeah, excited little munchkin,” Kestri said, leading Julie into her room. “Now, time for sleep for you.”
A small frown tugged at Julie’s lips as she started jumping higher, her arms held aloft. Perhaps to indicate that she wasn’t yet sleepy.
“Hey, I like a good 36 hour mining op as much as the next girl, but Lev says you gotta get your rest,” Kestri said, scooping Julie up and plopping her down in her bed. “He keeps nagging me about getting my rest too, come to think of it. Boys.”
Julie frowned, sticking her tongue out towards the open door, as though Lev were standing there.
“Atta girl,” Kestri smiled, pulling the blanket over Julie. “Now be good, and go to sleep. We’ll be at the station when you wake up.”
Julie pouted, a hand poking out from beneath the covers and pointing towards a nearby shelf. Specifically at a data log that rested on the shelf that she now knew to be full of stories.
Kestri glanced at the data log and winced. Lev usually read to Julie before she went to bed, and always put a hundred percent into it, doing voices and miming scenes out. He was just better at this whole ‘parenting’ thing.
“Alright, but I’m not good with the voices or the acting, ya know,” she said, pulling the log off the shelf and hooking it into her datapad.
Julie smiled again before scooching back down under the covers, visibly placated.
Kestri scrolled through the datapad until she found one story. One that seemed suitable for a girl Julie’s age. Clearing her throat, she began with, “The Squiggler and the Spaceport. By I. M. Hack.”
‘Wiggle Wiggle went the Squiggler through the airducts. Wiggle Wiggle through tunnels of gray. The Squiggler liked tunnels of gray. At least, they thought they did. Tunnels of gray were all the Squiggler knew.’
Kestri yawned as she stepped into her and Lev’s bedroom. She could remember a time not too long ago when it had just been Lev’s room, but then they found Julie in that wreckage and they were back to sharing like when they were kids.
She approached the bed and found herself with a dilemma. Lev had fallen asleep right in the middle of the damn thing.
“Well… this is a delicate problem that should be handled like an expert,” she said before bending down, grabbing his arm and shaking him vigorously. “OHMYGODLEVWAKEUPTHESHIPISCRASHING!”
“Whuzzah!? Fuck!” Lev babbled, suddenly flailing to kick the sheets off of himself and scrambled towards the edge of the bed. He had made it to his feet when he noticed something peculiar. A surprising lack of turbulence for what was screamed into his ear just a moment ago. Looking up, he saw Kestri with no trace of terror or even alarm in her expression. A moment later, his look of shock and confusion turned into a tired scowl. “...You are actually the worst.”
Kestri grinned. “Let’s see if you feel that way next time the radiator goes out,” she said, shoving him aside and laying down. “Your fat butt was right in the middle of the bed.”
“Well excuse me if I’m used to sleeping in my own bed,” Lev said, rolling his eyes as he sat down on the right side of the mattress. “How’s Julie?”
“Sleeping like a reactor core during a meltdown,” Kestri said, rolling away from him. “By the way you’re making soup when we reach the station.”
“I figured. We were running out of everything besides Nutripaste anyway,” Lev said with a shrug. “You remembered to do the voices, right?”
“I tried, it was good enough,” Kestri said. “I’m not built for motherhood, I was supposed to be the fun aunt.”
“Your idea of fun is sifting through palladium dust.”
“Well Julie likes it!”
“True, but she also likes audibly distinct characters in her bedtime stories,” Lev said evenly. “If you’re gonna be fun, you gotta understand that at the very least.”
“Name one aunt in ancient history who read the bedtime stories.”
“Goodnight, Kes.”
Kestri rolled over and smacked Lev’s shoulder. “Goodnight, jackass,” she said before shifting closer, wrapping an arm around him and squeezing him tightly. Then she rolled back over and pulled the blanket up to her neck.
Lev smiled and let himself sink back into the mattress. Despite the scare he was given just moments ago, the pull of slumber found him again quite easily. As odd as it was, Kestri’s presence was quite soothing.